Game talk

For some reason, today was “REALLY retro” game day here at work. And after we moved from Star Raiders to the TRS-80 version of Space War, I remembered another oldie game I loved: Star Traders, which I played on an Osborne I running CP/M.

A quick Google later I find bsittler’s Home Page, which has some very familiar source code on it (scroll a bit down). I remember trying to port this very same source code from MS-BASIC to Atari BASIC…

And then, a bit later, I’m playing it. Grab it here (tiny ZIP file). The “ntrade” version no longer works, but the old classic version still does. Eridani Outfitters has merged with Betelgeuse, and there was a 2 for 1 stock split…

So a little while back, Jeff Freeman said (in his inimitable politically incorrect way):

MMORPGs are real close to being like the Special Olympics already, but I think we ought go the other way with them. Away from everyone is special.

…while still allowing everyone to be special in their own way (or one of eight ways).

And I was reminded of it today, because I read an article over on CNN that says that students taking the Narcissistic Personality Inventory have shown a huge increase in self-centeredness.

…students’ NPI scores have risen steadily since the current test was introduced in 1982. By 2006, they said, two-thirds of the students had above-average scores, 30 percent more than in 1982.

So I just pose the questions: should we be thinking about whether our games are teaching people the wrong thing here? Can we even make a successful MMO that doesn’t lie to people and tell them they are all special?

BBC NEWS | Technology | Game profitability ‘under threat’ basically just says what my Age of the Dinosaurs talk said, only now it’s a news item.

It’s interesting to see this in the wake of the shake-up at EA that happened over the last few days: long-time CEO Larry Probst is moving out of that role. John Riccitiello, who was managing partner at Elevation Partners (the private equity firm that put together the Bioware/Pandemic deal) is returning to EA to become CEO.

Read More “The meteor finally makes the news…”

3pointD.com has the scoop on Kaneva. Definitely worth a read.

Kaneva had first announced quite a while ago, but then they seemed to go away to retool for a bit. Now they’re talking about being fully launched this summer. In short: a marriage between social network and virtual apartments, with stuff on your MySpace-equivalent page easily pulled into your virtual apartment.

Clickable Culture reports that The Electric Sheep Company gets (more?) funding to the tune of $7m. As part of the article, there’s a quote from Sheep competitor Millions of Us saying that the market for third-party services of the sort these two companies provide is pretty sizable — that the estimate of $10m worth of projects in development is “pretty low.”

For those who don’t know, what these companies do (and others like them) is act as third-party content and systems creators for virtual worlds. If you want to have a presence in Second Life, or make a pile of clothing for IMVU, or build a Virtual Laguna Beach, you call one of these companies and they will make the stuff for you.

Read More “The Sheep get funding”